Recently, the official website of the Harbin Pharmaceuticals Group’s Sixth Pharmaceuticals Plant published a set of photographs showing the internal environment [at the plant] with the photographs showing that its building is decorated in the style of Versailles, with fully carved wood corridors, gold foil inlays, and every angel lifelike and unique.

CCTV anchor Li Xiaoming said on his weibo: Initial reaction, Harbin Pharmaceuticals Six is a state-owned enterprise. According to Ministry of Finance data, state-owned enterprises made profits of nearly 2 trillion yuan, but only turned over about 5% as “bonuses/dividends”. It is said that state-owned enterprises are the people’s enterprises, so the people should know how the enterprises’ money is used. This “palace”, would the people be delighted to see it?

Those who can’t afford to get medical/health care should go take a tour of Harbin Pharmaceuticals. Just picking a little something off the wall should be enough for you to get medical/health care.

腾讯北京市网友 ー个不善于言:

I think it is for people to behold and admire, as the average person wouldn’t be able to go inside. The most niubi in all of China.

腾讯网友 本汐:

Just looking at it from the outside, you’d think it was some foreign historical site! Making money isn’t a problem, as long as it isn’t by bleeding others dry of their emergency/life-saving money!

腾讯哈尔滨市网友 吕蒙:

Only shows that Harbin Pharmaceuticals’ profits are good, nothing extraordinary, is decorating luxuriously a crime? The offices of banks’ financial management in every country are all like palaces, how come no one exposes those? A journalist with nothing better to do, people with nothing better to do, is there nothing more important to report? So someone who speaks the truth like Bai Yansong [a well-known CCTV host] is censored/banned, but a journalist that reports this kind of unimportant information makes headlines~~~shameless~

腾讯合肥市网友 九五二七:

Look at their swimming pool, gym, ping pong room… it’s basically just like a professional health club. Come on, this kind of worker’s club is way too TMD luxurious…

腾讯网友 /爱情救生圈:

I knew Harbin Pharmaceutical’s treatment of employees was good. To provide benefits to the employees is a good company and good management. I don’t care about these things, but I dare ask which company’s executives/officers shares the large amounts of money it makes with the workers. They are all state-owned enterprises, but some have poor treatment. I support Harbin Pharmaceuticals’ management.

腾讯淮北市网友 爱在初夏:

That they have money is because they worked hard to earn it, depending on their intelligent and hard work and continuous research and development, and not being eliminated from the market. As for how much money they turn over is their business, all I care about is the number of people’s jobs they can drive so long as they do not go bankrupt!!!

腾讯北京市网友 志军世家国际:

What happened…? This is very normal. What’s the big deal? This is what the healthy development of a business looks like. So Chinese state-owned enterprises aren’t allowed to do this? I support Harbin Pharmaceuticals… Hope there will be even more enterprises like Harbin Pharmaceuticals…

腾讯网友 蓦然回首:

No wonder so many people go all out to get into state-owned enterprises, because the benefits are so good. If I have the chance, I too want to get into a state-owned enterprise. If I can’t get it, I will still find a way for my children to help me realize this dream, and have other people know that my family also has someone in a state-owned enterprise.

腾讯湖南省网友 思损:

If state-owned enterprises are not banned, China’s economy will be difficult to develo and social conflicts will be difficult to overcome.

State-owned enterprises, uses the country’s money, the money made considered their own, the money they lose considered the country’s, always a business without loss.They should properly [spend the money to] deal with the pollution a pharmaceutical plant causes.

腾讯绍兴市网友 独生子:

How many people are suffering hardships. How good it would be if Harbin Pharmaceuticals Sixth plant provided financial aid to those who should be helped. This is too luxurious…

腾讯上海市网友 弈风:

State-owned enterprises making money is not something we can control, but I strongly recommend doubling the tax on state-owned enterprises, and if that doesn’t work, triple it.

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eattot

oh my god, it’s so beautiful, at least they have good taste.
i was in SOE, full of ass kisser, really!
women want to elevate, then sleep with superiors, men want to elevate, then bribe…or you have good background.
i knew several women directors, they are all very beautiful women, but they are not happy at all, their husbands do not care for them at all as for the reason.

This looks like a place in which someone had all the money in the world to fulfill their lavish lack of a imagination and taste.

It looks like where the cast of “Jersey Shore” would get married.

So forget the Nazi, eattot, and find yourself a nice “guido”..

eattot

i know, the style is too old and over the top a bit, also the color is too full, but it’s better for chinese maybe.
i like it, i am honest, it’s so fairy tale,if there are huge gardens out of those windows,it’s just like a dream then…
women and men like different things.

wallimo

I think the problem with this is, if it were built 600 years ago by a king in Europe it would be beautiful history. But this is built in modern times in China it’s all a bit gastly. But I do like the gym and the ping pong room I wish my workplace had that!

Why can’t the build something that uses chinese characteristics instead of european characteristics

B

Yeah agree, it looks cheap since they’re copying european architecture. If they instead were inspired by their own history it would have a more genuine feeling even though it’s a modern building.
It kinda just looks like a waste of money, and since it is a state owned enterprise, the question of the amount of money should definitely be in focus.
However I strongly support the swimming pool, gym and pingpong room.

fabulous

Yeah, I agree. When Chinese people use these elements of western palatial architecture to design their buildings it is so disappointing. I feel the same way about Chinese people wearing jeans or eating with a knife and fork. Chinese people shouldn’t change their hair or (even worse) their facial features to appear less “Chinese”. Chinese people shouldn’t be influenced by hip-hop or pop in their music. Chinese music should sound like “dinga-dinga ding-ding, ding-ding-ding”.

I think that Chinese people should only draw from their own culture. And I’m pretty sure that I’m in a good position to give this advice.

DRaY

I love this Eattot chick, her comments are priceless…. This building looks tacky… And the statement “it’s better for chinese”, is another way of saying you lack taste. .
Maybe it conforms to some FENG SHUI that I don’t comprehend, but I digress. For a pharmaceutical plant the interior and exterior design is a little out there, that’s just my opinion. Chinese need to invest more in cultivating some home grown talent, and originality. I had the idea today to incorporate old school Chinese building and or characters into skyscrapers and large buildings but reinterpreting the traditional elements giving them a modern touch. My brother is an Architecture student, maybe he can do this. hehe…. This country has no fucking identity, or maybe it’s identity is the lack of identity. Nice work on the gym and sporting facilities, good to see they think about the well being of the employees!!!…. I love CHINA SMACK!!! Please show me more reasons why I get paid a lot of money to design here in China.

baijiansi

”I had the idea today to incorporate old school Chinese building and or characters into skyscrapers and large buildings but reinterpreting the traditional elements giving them a modern touch.”

You thought that up all by yourself?

Open your eyes, these buildings are already everywhere in China.

eattot

I like men show off in front of women, it makes them very cute. At least they have sth to be proud of, much better than those who gets nothing but requir women independent,educated,stable job…they just sound like poor looser!

Wallimo

Yeah like say Taipei 101 for example using classic Chinese features with modern building techniques and that makes a unique and beautifully Chinese style building.

平凡人

All that glitters is not gold….

Mark

You have no taste.

jiayi

Pretty swanky.

However, looking further into it you will find like most Chinese things this is actually built out of children’s baby teeth, discarded rice crackers and shellac.

Just John

So now I know what the tooth fairy does with all those teeth.

Do you know the distribution number? I would like to order some teeth for the new flood proof Da Vinci chairs I am making for Yao to give to his new certificate girl girlfriend. This way they will have a comfortable, not at all made in China chair to watch trains and kittens, the new documentary I am making about trains running over kittens and the women in heels who threw them on the tracks.

I also need a few to donate to Project Hope and the Red Cross society for their world changing charitable efforts, bringing hope to Africans and Meimei’s worldwide, as men and women struggle with divorces and unequal asset splits, thus leaving poor women with no choice but to give their deformed babies to either drug trolls under bridges, skull caving stepmothers, or Yuan Lihai.

With your help in contacting baby teeth distributors, we can end all the injustice and bring hope, and cars, to many, many people.

Did I leave anything out?

Tengu

Nazis, Steve Jobs, Hurdling, and the chick with the umbrella over the cripple..other than that you have it covered.

Tonobo

Haha, spot on.

Rice crackers and balsa wood!

Check out the Shanghai Bank building in Shenyang as another great example of how to spend money wisely on a SOE HQ…

平凡人

Looks like they are making huge profits. Two possibilities: either they are selling the price way beyond the cost or doctors in China are pushing a boat load of drugs to patients who do not need that much; maybe both. Now we know why the medical cost is a big issue in China.

2011 – Only chinese would decorate like this with fake gold etc. like they’re royalty……But when the wind blows hard the cheap deco will fall apart like everything else in China.

JPAX

Like a hotel. Eattot. Almost all business is this carried out this way in China not specific to any one area, company or sector.

So if you want to elevate yourself give me a shout.

Just John

You know they have a reply button under commenters so you can reply directly to them, and not break the chain of thought by having a stand alone post with a reference to someone from another post, right?

Just look at the bottom of eattots comments, and you should be able to find it. It’s easy, you can do it. I have faith.

dave stevens

I see your inner smart ass is getting a run again; can’t help yourself, can you?

Just John

Yep, because unlike others, I do not believe the internet is serious business.

Also, if you notice, my comment was made in a lighthearted way to reference many recent articles on chinasmack.

Just John

Wait, sorry, this was the wrong post…
I referenced my earlier post. Damn, I turned into an idiot again…

Tengu

When hanging in the tubes, we are all in grave danger….

derp :D

goddang! wonder what the bathroom is like? probably a crystal toilet or something?

Stark

Toilet? Do you mean a crystal hole in the ground?

Foreign Devil

I bet you it’s still a chinese style hole in the ground. . . with no toilet paper around. ..except this hole lined with Marble.

rollin wit 9’s

regarding the first chinese comment above?

Why do Chinese people go to the doctor when they have a cold?

I dont need to elaborate on this to westerners or anyone that’s been in china for longer than 2-3 post summer seasons, but I seriously want to know.

Stu

Sometimes it’s a translation issue I think… what translates as ‘cold’ is fairly vague and might be worse than what you’re thinking of. However, there’s also the fact that ‘there is no cure for the common cold’ just isn’t common knowledge in China… and I don’t think the hospitals, which make a lot of money out of pumping people full of medicine, are in the mood to tell anyone. If you’re thinking ‘but this makes China a giant incubator for antibiotic-resistant killer diseases’… you’re probably right.

Because hospitals give them massive doses of anti-biotics which actually does help get better faster. Usually it’s not just a cold, but a fever or something else mild and people here want fast treatment instead of sustainable treatment. No one cares that this style of health care will lead to anti-biotic resistant diseases and quite likely to a global plague, they just want their fever gone now.

Humans, not just Chinese, have very little in terms of long term vision. We’re killing ourselves off but no one wants to sacrifice their comfort now to benefit their children.

Alejandro

Antibiotics don’t work on viruses.

Chad

… as someone who works in healthcare, I can tell you that a LOT of human beings of every ethnicity go to the doctor when they only have the cold. Then they demand antibiotics, encouraging the spread of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Usually, it’s panicky, uneducated parents that are the cause. I live in an educated, developed country so I’m assuming it’s even worse in less developed and educated coutnries.

Foreign Devil

If you’ve ever worked in corporate China you will know why. You are required to get a doctors note if you miss work and call in sick. . or they will doc your pay. Yes it is absolutely retarded, show a complete lack of trust in the employee and treats them like highschool kids. . but it’s China! I remember I had major high fever and felt too weak to walk but they wanted me to bundle up and get on a crowded bus and into a crowded hospital to get a fucking note. . Which ties up the system and would worsen my condition. .should be resting.

coala banana

typical chinese show off, lacking style and creativity. They seem obsessed with the shiny stuff. I wonder how the structure looks bellow the wall panels :-(. No, its not beautiful, it looks tasteless cause of the location, the time, and the chinese society in general which falls for everything as long as it shines and is packed nice.

Joe

Well, it is based off of European architecture…

Dr. Jones Jr.

Based off Rococo/Baroque which was popular in the West a few hundred years ago: unfortunately the European architecture of choice for all sorts of nouveau riche, including ‘Jersey Shore’ types, mobsters, and the average sort of wealthy Chinese.
Typical ostentation for those desperate to prove their new-minted elitism.

Stu

What’s up with the Chinese comments saying this is normal/acceptable? Is the fifty cent party out in force on this one? I mean…
(a) it’s a state-owned enterprise, so it’s using dirt-poor farmers’ taxes to do this
(b) it produces pharmaceuticals, at least some of which could well be fake or poisonous
(c) it’s presumably actively involved in pushing up the price of medicine and pushing doctors to prescribe medicines to patients who don’t need them and can’t afford them
(c) there is no way on earth it’s not corrupt as hell
(e) that horrific lack of taste
…seriously, there’s so much to hate here.

Stu

Forgot to mention that while the gold crap all over the place might be fake (check out the subtly hidden wall panel in the first photo!), I’d bet that at least some of the antiques are genuine and have been liberated from China’s museums…

mr. weiner

It was garish and over the top when Cathrine the great did it in Riga 300years ago, now it just looks ridiculous. Ah well you know how some folks like a bit of face, I supose it’s better then 1960’s socialist cinderblock.

JAYJAY

I am from Harbin, now living in the UK. I remember 4/5 years ago, when I went back to visit one summer, I saw the “Palace” just being completed. It is very over the top, big and lavish. As we drove on the flyover, it looked like the Parliament Building in Westminster. Then I was told it is only an office/factory building. Locals call it 药六皇宫 “Pharmaceuticals Six Palace”. This is just lack of accountability of how money are spent by the bosses. No shareholder objections or state intervention being a SOE. But this kind of projects keeps the GDP high and makes CCP happy. It will run out of heat at some stage. Hard-landing in 2013 maybe?

平凡人

Well said, lack of accountability.

Tonobo

There certainly needs to be an intervention of some sort as no enterprise can be sustained in this manner.

The problem is SOE’s have gotten way out of hand and in some cases wield power similar to that of the top gov departments. Reigning in on these guys would be highly political to the extent it would require mass sackings, officials being transferred all over the place and likely a few executions. Good luck to who ever, if ever, gets tasked with that job!

slimboyinhk

This plant puts many historical Chinese Dynasty’s palaces to shame.

mr. weiner

After unwisely trying some forest mushrooms I fell into a fretful dream state in which I saw the instutions and buildings of the chinese ccp tranformed into faux roccoco and deco monstocities. I saw the great and the good in that country all strutting arroung on nazi regalia and satisfied smirks [including some odd lady in a surgical mask] All the while working underground albino children were occasionally surfacing to canabalize the one who had rejected them. and the country was powered by generators that would collect the energy of all their ancestors spinning in their graves…..I have to lay off those ‘shrooms methinks

Tengu

Not a matter of you laying off the ‘shrooms it’s more that “sharing is caring”, bring them to the field trip…

udl..

i mma gonna work there.

Jess

Well, tickle me impressed. But what a waste of money, really. This is the sort of thing that should mostly be left to eccentric billionaires and religious groups. Take a look at the interior of the $250 million Fan Gong Palace in Wuxi. What kind of weird Buddhist shrine/museum/castle is that thing…

Brett Hunan

Damn thats a beautiful pharmaceutical plant.

I’ve found that most western medicine sold in China goes for up to 100s of times less than it’s western counterpart. How can they afford this?

Does anyone have a figure on the actually price of this building?

Also… check out the matching ping pong and billiards uniforms.

Andeli

This is what a farmer that just won USD 250 mil. would build. Or as only the French can say it nouveau riche.

Cleo

I think it’s good to offer something like this when most Chinese can’t afford to visit the real one but is the real Versailles really this ugly? I believe in sumptuous surroundings and comfort for workers.

When we see more indoor skiing like Ski Dubai? Hongkong needs one STAT!

Irvin

I don’t got something to say about this: don’t get sick in china.

Alex from Canada

Umbrella Corporation! But seriously, this is tasteless, in every way! Pharmaceutical companies are about the worst kind of example of corporate greed and corruption! Even worse than the military complex.

dilladonuts

soo embarrassing, chinese worshipping wack western culture again, putting themselves in some lame subservient role again… gotta wash all that money some how,

but hey, its their money, spend it as how they see fit.

Tengu

Versailles is still there; this place will be falling apart in three years….

Tengu

What’s with the “Angel” in the second photo, I see wings.

Looks like it was designed by Liberace…..

GUH

Chinkies had no ideas of what is a European palace. They just copied the design to build a whore house with cheap plastic building materials. The function is mainly for entertainment of visiting Lingdaos.

roger dodger

no way that is not a pharmacy?

Anon

Chinese characteristics you Euro-fakers. Chinese panels. Chinese cornices. Chinese floors. Chinese patterns. Pagodas not steeples. Sell the whole building to a white man or makeover the whole building with Chinese characteristics.

3rd last pic, Chinese details for pillars.

Pics 6 and 7 are faux Chinese at best and just too small, ever seen a tacky Hollywood production depicting Chinese restaurants? Thats the architectural authenticity of those who decided on this. What a waste of material.

Pics 10, 11, 12, 13 are disgraceful. Copycating Europe wholesale. How about making this into a European theme park instead of a pharma company? The stockholders should be most displeased with the expenditure on the facade and all to become whitewashed.

Study the height of the ceilings. Anything lower than 1.5 stories high is merely provincial, not palacial. The lobby itself of such a large building should be 3 stories, 10 times the size at least. Recreation rooms’ ceilings are too low. Even schools have higher ceilings.

Harbin Pharma Plant should look like a Chinese Palace not a European one.

Atomic

Has ANYONE realized how ridiculous this is?! Yes, I know this is typical for big Chinese businesses, but what is it going to take for the culture as a whole to realize how stupid it is to be spending all of the government’s money on luxury instead of pioneering research?

China has a LONG way to go to become a truly first-world, industrial nation like much of the western world when this is considered the norm and anti-corruption officials are killed by mercenaries hired by the very people that official was meant to put out of power… and are ruled as suicides. >_> -_-

This sort of s*** will never be allowed to happen in westernized nations. It’s absolutely atrocious this sort of luxury is considered acceptable.

The workplace should be a WORKPLACE, not a freaking hotel, IMO.

The “palace” is very beautiful, though.

Foreign Devil

It’s an interesting mish mash of Greco-European influence and Chinese influence. Verging on gaudiness. Nice to see workers being treated like people for once. . with gamesrooms and fitness facilities. Weird to see mock Christian paintings on the wall. The labs themselves look sparse and lo-tech with generic office style ceiling panels that release lots of dust particles. . My guess is the enterprise is not capable of being profitable. . but instead leans entirely on government sponsorship. . as with most state owned enterprises.

Ho Hum

I wonder what it’ll look like in a couple of years.

No, I know. Like an ageing KTV gin palace, with the wallpaper peeling off the walls, the fittings hanging off a screw, and two thirds of the lightbulbs blown and unreplaced because they die every fortnight cos of undercapacity.

Four Eyes

No-one approves of squandering money on opulence, but there may be sound commercial reasons for this case. Assuming the building is wind and watertight, they won’t have to redecorate for a long time, certainly not every 10 years, so the running costs will be reduced. And if they ever have to sell the building then the value will be greater.

I’m impressed. I wish British companies would do something like this instead of going for 1980s minimalist style concrete, glass and distempered plasterboard walls. Sadly, it’s too imaginative for us now, and of course the shareholders would be appalled at the reduction in profits.

As a suggestion, the atmosphere would be better if they got some budding musicians in to play live music in keeping with the historical period. That would create a few jobs and maybe deflect a bit of criticism.

King Tubby

That wouldn’t be hard. There are about 40 million Chinese students being tortured by classical violin lessons.

they are insane, i dont doubt why Qing Dynasty fell, it is Chinese nature, money and vanity

ralphrepo

The egos of some people in high places are absolutely astounding. Give them a little bit of money and power; then sit back and watch the ostentatious display. We Chinese seem to have a persistent history of doing things like buying cement boats when we should have been buying real ones. The wasteful extravagance seen here is no different.

jeffli

disgusting! a state owned enterprise wasting money like that!
meanwhile there’s children dying of polio and a plethora of easily preventable diseases within china!
sickens me!

jeffli

Another piece of evidence prooving that the last 600 years since beginning of the Ming dynasty to now China has been, and still is culturally and developmentally bankrupt.

poor copies of some of Europes icons representing the dark eras of psychotic monarchies and dictatorships.